


The Fortunate Girl

by Odyle



Category: Daddy Long Legs - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Ladies Ficathon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-29
Updated: 2010-08-29
Packaged: 2017-10-11 07:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/110043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyle/pseuds/Odyle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The John Grier Home is a lifetime away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fortunate Girl

  
The trunk casts shadows against the opposite wall that keep her awake. After an eternity of lying there and staring at it, she gets up to push it under her bed. It is full of clothes. Each semester her Daddy-Long-Legs sends her out to get more clothing. Wearing a new shirtwaist still makes her feel guilty and the compliments from her friends only dig the guilt in deeper. Judy has pared down her wardrobe, giving some of her dresses to the maids in her hall. It embarrasses her to have so much when she never sees the maids in anything aside from ginghams she remembers too well from the John Grier Home.

There are so many people she has met who have so much, though no girl on campus is more fortunate than Judy. She may not have parents, but she has a Daddy-Long-Legs who provides for her material wants, even if she does not need for anything and friends who surround her and grow exponentially in number as the years pass. Their letters are piled on her desk, though the few notes she has received from his secretary are tucked away in a cigar box in the trunk. Judy stops to touch her most recent letter from Jimmie before climbing back into bed.

The foundling home was just a place, but college has become her home. This is where her family composed of friends is. College is where she found her voice. Her name has only been attached to short pieces in student publications so far, but ideas for poems and stories pour from her pen. Her opinions and her works matter here, a still refreshingly new set of circumstances. There are always friends asking about her latest work after basketball practice, and roommates willing to have early drafts inflicted upon them. Judy could not dream up a better family, not even her Daddy-Long-Legs can compete when Sallie brings her warm cider on cold nights when Latin has her backed into a corner.

The John Grier Home is a lifetime away.

There is no girl who isn't less fortunate than Jerusha Abbott.


End file.
